Cybersecurity: Why Logistics Need to Combat Hackers

The internet. A world of mass communication, culture, e commerce and… private information. With the use of technology, our world has transformed from paper reliance to the ease of a computer’s brain storage. Companies, businesses and even individuals use the convenience of a computer to hold all of their information. From banking, shipping tracking and online purchases to addresses and other identification information, computers are being used 24/7.

The world we live in today, in the midst of fast business and extreme details of personal life lies the underworld of hackers. Hackers are known as highly knowledgeable and skilled individuals in the world of technology and computers. Using this to their benefit, hackers gain access to computer programs and break into computer systems. This breach of cyber security opens up threats of bugs and exploits, causing nothing but chaos for whoever falls victim. The logistics industry is no exception to this potential damage.

2017 Cyber Security Breach Disasters

HBO | Held at ransom, HBO internal documents were exploited, releasing leaks of unaired TV show episodes. The hackers approached the media outlet making them aware of the breach, and followed to leak personal information, including that of the senior HBO executive. Employee names, email addresses, data and other corporate materials were stolen after HBO failed to protect such data.

Cloudflare | You may have received an email saying something along the lines of “Data has been leaked from millions of websites, it’s time to change your passwords!”. Cloudflare, a performance and security service company for millions of websites revealed earlier this year that a bug was in their system had caused random leaks to sensitive customer information. Widely spread across the internet, users on websites such as Fitbit and Uber could have had their information leaked. In total, over 3,000 customers were affected by the bug.

American Voters | Those registered to vote among the American population may have had their personal information exposed. The data firm, Deep Root Analytics had a misconfiguration in their system. This made it an easy job for hackers, just as if a family had left their front door wide open for burglars. After exposing close to 200 million Americans and their personal information.

Back to Logistics

The logistics industry is responsible for catering to the privacy of their exclusive clients, tracking and shipping information of air, sea, and land cargo. On June 27, 2017, A.P. Moller-Maersk’s computer system was hacked, which only caused disruption and delays in their transports across the globe.

Although many would think that banks, financial firms and website databases of private information are the prime targets, the logistics industry is still at risk of cyber attacks as they make for a tempting target. In the event that a logistics company becomes a target to hackers, it’s best that the logistics company be fully prepared to combat such a disaster. This readiness should come not only to protect their company, but the security of their clients and customers as well.

The logistics industry must step it up to ensure the integrity of transporting products and materials for both the retailers’ and the consumers’ cyber safety. Now is the best time to re-vamp and protect security systems in the cyber world against a hacked attack.